Another enjoyable week teaching
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
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Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
I´ve enjoyed my second full week teaching at Chachani Village , even if we were down a little on numbers of children compared to the first full week. In the previous two weeks the kids had been on holiday from their main school which makes it easier for many of them to be able to come to Chachani. We are continuing to try and follow a more structured approach - so they learn English alphabet , family members , greetings , numbers etc. (not vastly different to when I first started very basic Spanish to be honest). Playing Bingo with them in the previous week has unleashed a monster ! ... we have had them spontaneously chanting "Bingo , Bingo" , because they want to play again ... they even preferred on one day to stay longer in the classroom to play Bingo rather than go to the playground for their football and volleyball time. We tried to introduce some rounders to the playground this week for a bit of variety but most of the kids mutinied ... football is the number one and the only game for many of them , including some of the girls , who I hasten to add are really rather good , fearlessly putting in crunching tackles on the boys. On Friday this week the classroom was closed as it is Arequipa Independence Day , a local holiday and the celebration of the founding of the city of Arequipa on Aug 15th 1540. Most of us volunteers thus took the chance for a very big night out in the city on Thursday night , the eve of Independence , which is a popular night out in the city with the plaza was full of people with street entertainers and so on. On the actual Arequipa Independence Day,Friday, there is a huge parade passing along "Avenida Independencia" , which luckily for us is actually the adjoining main road to the street , Gomez de la Torre, where the volunteer house is located. They set up rows and rows of seats in kind of mini grandstands along the avenue and many locals seemed to be getting there very early for the prime viewing locations. The actual parade itself consists of many dancers , marching bands and various carnival floats which are based on the traditional themes & costumes from different parts of Peru and also other countries in Latin America. It was all very colourful , enthusiastic and energetic , especially given the searing heat which made it hard work just standing there watching , especially given the feistiness of some of the locals ... several bouts of pushing & shoving broke out , mostly resulting from people who seemed frustrated they couldnt walk on the avenue whilst the parade was going on . After Thursday nights excesses , Friday´s heat watching the parade and plans for a night out at a concert for Independence Day on the following evening , most of us crashed in front of the house TV on the Friday night ... we watched a Brazilian film called "City of Men" about life in the Rio favelas ... kind of similar thing to the highly acclaimed "City of God" which I enjoyed a few years ago.
